I'm Off To Hyrule (Or Is It The Lylat System): My New Gig At Nintendo Of America

As many of you may know, my first video game love was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Sure, I'd played games before that, but I was either too young to really understand them or they just didn't draw me in. Ocarina was, as it was to so many others, special to me. From then on, I considered Nintendo's work on not only the Zelda series, but on all their iconic series, as foundational to my own work in games – as an editorial intern at Game Informer, as a freelancer at Extra Life, and as a games researcher.

What has been just as foundational, though, are my relationships with all of you. The reason I was connected to Game Informer in the first place was because Phil Kollar said hello to me on Twitter back in 2009 and our friendship grew from there. Social media and my writing communities (YOU!) have been absolutely instrumental in getting me to where I'm at as a feminist, as a scholar, and as a gamer. Without your support, I would be nothing. I would be nowhere. It's you who makes my work important and makes it meaningful not only for myself, but for others who find entertainment, inspiration, and education (and maybe even reasons to rage!) in what I do.

This announcement, then, is bittersweet: I've accepted a position as a product marketing specialist at Nintendo of America. I'm speechless on how I got to be so lucky. If I could go back in time and tell Kid Ali that someday, she'd be moving to Seattle and working for Nintendo, she'd never believe me. Never. It'd be like telling me I'm going to invent interstellar space travel – sorry, but it's not gonna happen.

The thing about my new gig, though, is that it's both highly confidential and yet very public in nature – chances are, you'll see me in videos and at big events. But that also means I need to switch gears – you won't see me writing here at GIO anymore, and I'll also be pretty mum on things related to games on social media. The reason for my, er, mumness, though, is pretty exciting – it means I'm working more behind the scenes to help make great experiences for you all, and that's the best job I could ask for.

To wrap up, I can't thank you all enough for being here for me – for reading my stuff, for talking to me on Twitter, and for putting up with all my rantings about everything you could think of (and hopefully even some things you hadn't thought of before). I'm going to be working my tail off for you in Seattle. And, of course, I'll always be around to say hello, explain some cool feminist theory, or fangirl about things I like (manga, sci-fi, ponies…). I can't wait to enter this new stage of my career and my life with all of you beside me.